Sue is an associate professor in the Chemical Engineering Department at The University of Massachusetts Amherst. She also holds a position as the director of the UMass Amherst Institute for Cellular Engineering (ICE). She obtained her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1992 and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University in 1998.

Current Graduate Students

Sarah Wilson completed her B.S. in Chemical Engineering at Rowan University in the spring of 2009. She decided to attend graduate school at UMass to conduct research in cellular engineering and joined the Roberts group in the fall of 2009. Sarah's focus is on characterizing novel genes involved in paclitaxel production with an overall goal to enhance the accumulation and production of paclitaxel in Taxus cell cultures through agrobacterium-mediated transformation. She is completing this work in collaboration with Joyce Van Eck at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research in Ithaca, New York.

Email: swilson@ecs.umass.edu

Elizabeth Cummings completed her B.S.E in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering with a concentration in Pharmaceutics and Biotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania in 2013. She chose to attend graduate school at UMass to pursue her interests in biotechnology through work with plant cell culture in the Roberts Lab, and joined the lab in fall 2013. In collaboration with Weyerhaeuser, Elizabeth focuses on searching for an early marker for somatic embryogenesis in loblolly pine suspension cultures and applying the knowledge to engineer the cultures for optimal embryo yield.

Email: ecummings@engin.umass.edu

Greg Andrews joined the Roberts lab in the fall of 2014 as a Ph.D. student in the department of chemical engineering. After receiving his B.A. in chemistry and mathematics from Boston University in 2012, Greg held various positions in the biotech industry before attending UMass. Greg is currently developing a high-throughput screening platform for biological activity within the plant cell culture library (PCCL).

Michelle McKee earned her BS in Biology from Indiana University. Michelle joined the Roberts lab in the fall of 2014 and is working towards her PhD in Plant Biology. Her focus is optimizing Taxus plant cell culture using genetic approaches to increase paclitaxel production.

Email: mcmckee@umass.edu

Research Fellows

Vanessa Bartolo completed her B.S. in Biology with a minor in Chemistry at Elms College in 2014. Shortly after, she joined the Roberts lab as a technician working with the extensive live plant tissue culture collection donated by Monsanto. Here, she maintains the cultures and is currently working on cold storage experiments with the goal of transitioning the cells to lower temperatures where metabolic processes slow in order to reduce labor and cost for the long-term maintenance of the large collection. She plans on starting her PhD in Microbiology in the fall of 2016.

James Fargnoli is from Providence, RI and performed undergraduate research with the Roberts Lab prior to his earning of an undergraduate degree from UMass Amherst in 2014. He now works as a research fellow, optimizing the maintenance of the Plant Cell Collection.

Current Undergraduate Researchers

Bronwyn Finney joined the Roberts Lab in the fall of 2013 to begin work on her Capstone honors thesis in biochemisry. Bronwyn is working on the metabolic engineering of Taxus suspension cultures.

Steven Ayotte joined the Roberts lab in Summer 2014 as a rising junior chemical engineering honors student to work on cryopreservation of the Plant Cell Culture Collection. Steve will be working to complete his Capstone honors thesis.

John Vetrano joined the Roberts lab in Fall 2014 as a junior chemical engineering honors student. John is working on metabolic engineering of Taxus suspension cultures and will complete a Capstone honors thesis.

Julie Boshar joined the Roberts Lab in the spring of 2015 as a sophomore honors chemical engineering student pursuing a concentration in biochemical engineering. Julie will be studying somatic embryogenesis in loblolly pine and working towards her Honors Senior Thesis.

Elizabeth Humble joined the Roberts lab in the spring of 2015 as an honors sophomore in chemical engineering to begin working on her Capstone honors thesis. Elizabeth will be studying somatic embryogenesis in the loblolly pine.

Owen O'Connor joined the Roberts lab in the spring of 2015 as an honors sophomore in chemical engineering. Owen is working with the Plant Cell Culture Collection and pursuing his Capstone honors thesis.